Many people my age remember a lot of retro games that are, well…not that good, but remembered fondly for some reason. When I was taking game industry classes, some people talked about the somewhat cult classic/bad game, A Boy and his Blob for the NES. What I remember hearing is that the concept is bizarre, and it’s very unforgiving in difficulty. Nowadays, people are always trying to bring back old classic games with varying results. The Blaster Master reboot was bad and the remake for Splatterhouse was pretty good. Nothing about these remakes has really blown my mind, until I picked up a specific game. What is this game I am talking about? Is it some whimsical underrated gem that is a remake…okay, the punchline is the remake of A Boy and his Blob. This game was a change of pace out of all the 2D style Wii games that are usually garbage. This game actually took some careful execution and actually results in it being one of the better Wii games. Now, from the look of it, I can see how you would need to take a second look to make sure it is a good game, but trust me, it’s one of the better Wii games out on the market.

The story is very light as well, there isn’t much to it. This game is more about immersing you into its world. The only story I could tell is that an alien-like thing fell from the sky and a little boy finds it. The thing turns out to be a little white blob. It is also shown that there is an evil blob that is trying to take over the world, and it is up to you and your jellybean-loving blob to save the world! It’s a simple story since this is a re-imagining of an NES game, so the story is very light. I will say, though, that it’s a cute story

The gameplay is like the recently released game, Stacking, where it’s a mix of adventure, platforming, and mostly puzzle solving. The main goal in this game in each of the four worlds is to get from point A to point B with your blob. Throughout the 10 levels in each of the worlds, you are equipped with a certain variety of jellybeans that can make your blob transform into multiple things to get you through the level. The blob can turn into stuff like a ladder, a trampoline, a robot, a protected ball, parachute, a jack, an anvil, and many other things to help you take down all 4 of the bosses and get around the monsters in the levels, since the blob is the only thing you can use to destroy the enemies. If you get hit ONCE, you are dead. This results in the game being very difficult at times, and somewhat punishing. There are also a couple of treasure chests throughout the levels and will give you extra stuff for your hideouts. This game does give you a good amount of stuff to do since you will get done with this game in around 10 hours or so. Oh, and by the way, there is a hug command to where you can give your blob a hug. It has no purpose but to look cute, and to calm the nerves after a tedious boss fight.

The graphics are beautiful for a 2D game. I mean, they aren’t as good as Muramasa or Odin Sphere, but if you have played games like Wario Land Shake it! or the upcoming Rayman Origins, then you won’t be disappointed by the visuals. It has a very soft warm look to it and somewhat reminds me of art styles like the Studio Ghibli films. The music is also very whimsical. It isn’t like Final Fantasy 9 or anything, but it’s very calming, like in Flower. The whole game definitely has a charm to it, and it pulls you into its cartoon-like world.

Even with its charm, it does have some flaws. The game has very little reason to replay through it. I mean it has a good challenge and there are some challenges to complete, but I never found a reason to play through it again. The game, like I said, can be rather difficult since you can’t attack. It’s like in Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers on the NES where you have to use boxes to hit every enemy. You can say that this game is more platforming oriented, but if you have enemies, at least have one transformation, like a vacuum cannon or something like in Ratchet and Clank. Since this is the case, you will die often. This game also has the old time formula of you dying if you jump off a high cliff. I also found the boss fights interesting, BUT they are tedious to find out what you need to do.

All and all, this game won’t make you want to get a Wii, but it is a small-underrated gem that is worth renting from Gamefly. You can also get this game on the cheap side by now, and is worthwhile if you are into platforming puzzle games. I know a lot of people are not fans of the original game, but this one is definitely worth your time if you’re into great animation and cute-looking settings. Maybe, some day, we can all have a little white blob to love and feed jellybeans to.